Mandelson: future Commission to be tough on state aid

The UK’s Commissioner designate for Trade, Peter
Mandelson, believes that the future Commission “must have one
guiding light: to be a strong, reforming Commission”.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Confederation of
British Industry, Peter Mandelson made clear that the new
Commission would be tough on state aid for companies like
Alitalia, Volkswagen and Alstom. He said that the Commission “needs
to pick and win some early fights” to be strong and get Europe
out of its current economic downturn.

Peter Mandelson said that the task of the Barroso’s ‘growth
and jobs Commission’ is “to redynamise Europe’s old economic
structures to achieve more efficient markets, a faster rate of
innovation, higher productivity and growth, and therefore higher
levels of employment for Europe’s citizens”.  

Even if the Commission has important responsibilities in the
social and environmental spheres, “growth and jobs must be the
focus”, he added. This answer seems to come as a response to
criticism from British businesses that EU regulation is
constraining their profits. 

Read more with Euractiv

EU moves to implement WTO access to medicines agreement

A new regulation would allow producers of generic medicines to make patent-protected drugs available for export to poor countries without sufficient manufacturing capacity.